I'll NEVER Die! (A Guide to the 5E Barbarian)

[NeoSeraphi]

Role


For some reason, most acceptable art of female barbarians includes them wearing some kind of fur or animal skinned bra, even though 75% of all actual in-game barbarians (either NPCs or players) will continue to wear nothing above the waist.


Tank - A barbarian is a different kind of tank than a fighter or a paladin. Instead of tanking with lots of armor and Lay on Hands, barbarians tank with their buff, manly chests. With a d12 hit dice and the Bear Totem features, you will laugh off any damage coming your way. And unlike a fighter or a paladin, if the enemy tries to ignore you, you'll just kill them instead!

Damage - A barbarian gets scaling bonus to their damage while they rage, as well as easy access to advantage on attack rolls and a capstone that literally lets them break the rules on capped stats. It doesn't matter. Rogues? Not as accurate. Fighters? Not as high damage. Paladins? Still not as fast as you in that bulky armor. Barbarians are the kings of melee damage in D&D.



The Chassis

HD - You get the highest HD in the game. In fact, the d12 might as well have been created just for barbarians, since its only uses are the beastly greataxe and the barbarian HD.
Skills and Tools - You get 2 skills from a small list, but Perception is on that list so what does it matter? Skills are so easy to pick up in this game anyway. You get two free ones from your background and more from your race. You get no tool proficiencies.
Armor - You get proficiency with everything except heavy armor, so no sky blue here, but still better than average.
Weapons - Everything. Go crazy.
Saving Throws - Strength saves aren't that common, but when they do come up they're usually meant to get you away from something that you should be beating the crap out of, so it's nice that you get a bonus to avoid that. Con saves kill you, and if you're dead that cuts in to your face-smashing time, so make sure you roll high.




The Class Features

Unarmored Defense: You get to use your chest as armor. Immensely flavorful, to the point that I wish it was a thing in 3.P so that I could have had it then too. It just seem so...core to the barbarian identity. It's not as good as full plate, obviously, but if you want to play a true, shirtless barbarian, you won't be gimped for doing so.

Rage: This is why you play a barbarian. And somehow, even though it's lost the traditional ability score bonuses, rage has become even more manly. Advantage on Str saves and Str checks. You rage, you're going to break that door down and no wimpy monk is going to be pushing you back. You get a bonus to damage, which means that your damage will always be higher than someone else who has 20 Str. Very good. And you get resistance to physical damage. At level 1. This is ridiculous. Your chest will literally break arrows while you have to make an Int check to even notice you were attacked. Which you will fail, because you are a man.

Rage does have a weird restriction now, but that isn't enough to push it below sky blue.

Reckless Attack: Rogue/barbarian multiclass anyone? (A rogue has to use a finesse weapon to Sneak Attack, but they don't need to use the finesse quality if they don't want to, so you could use a dagger with your Strength and still Sneak Attack). Like I said, a barbarian tanks with his health, not his AC, so making sure people hit you (and then halving the damage you take) in order to make sure you hit them is ridiculous. This doesn't even take an action to use and as long as you're doing your job and dropping the enemies in one round you won't even feel the penalty.

If your DM allows it, you can also use Reckless Attack to disarm your opponents more easily (by making an attack roll against the target's Athletics or Acrobatics check) and then using your object interaction to pick the item up and deny it to the enemy.

Danger Sense: Dex saves are very common, and while you don't get proficiency with them, advantage on them is arguably better anyway. If you take the Resilient (Dexterity) feat this becomes sky blue.

Extra Attack: You do more damage than a paladin, ranger or monk, and you still get the same number of attacks as them.

Fast Movement: I'm honestly not sure what inspired this in the first place. To me, this should be part of a totem (lion possibly) if the intended flavor is that some barbarians try to emulate fast animals. It's a decent ability, to be sure, and you'll be glad for it most times, but generally DMs will build encounters around the standard move speed because the rest of your party will be slower, so you might not notice this.

Feral Instinct: Advantage on initiative checks? That's amazing! And you get to act normally during surprise rounds when you're raging. Combined with Reckless Attack and Fast Movement, I really do have to wonder if WotC does want to see Barbarian/Assassin Rogue multiclasses. Someone get on that already.

Brutal Critical: This is amazingly flavorful, and helps to emulate that original greataxe feel, but considering that it still only has a 5% chance of occurring it's not that useful in game. But when it does come up, you will feel more like a barbarian than you ever have.

Relentless Rage: You can, by making a DC 10 Con save, literally keep fighting even when you would die. Considering that orcs are not a playable race and half-orcs can only do this once per long rest, this is basically the only way in the game to emulate that old school Ferocity ability. Not that it matters, since it's on the only class that needs it.

Persistent Rage: It's certainly a welcome ability, but it's the removal of a restriction that was only added this edition, and if you play correctly you should never end your rage prematurely anyway (unless your DM is intending for that to happen). A decidedly meh ability at a level where you should really be feeling much manlier.

Indomitable Might: Seriously, my friends and I can't read this ability without laughing out loud. If you roll less than 20 on a Strength check you can take 20 on that check instead. The best part is, of course, that you can still roll the dice first, so if you roll higher than 20, you keep that roll.

Primal Champion: You get to have more Strength than anyone else at the table. Period. But what if - no. The capstone for barbarians literally lets them break the rules of capped stats. And gives them the 4 Str and Con on top of that. Mannificient.



Primal Paths

Path of the Berserker

Frenzy - It's so disappointing. Such a great ability that is ruined by the system, not the ability itself. The problem here is that levels of exhaustion can only be removed one at a time by the greater restoration spell, which is only available to clerics and druids, costs 100 gp per cast, and consumes a 5th level spell slot (so you only get it at 9th level and onward). So in a game where you are expecting to run into 6 encounters a day at all levels, wearing yourself out is not something you want to do, ever.

Mindless Rage: You become fearless and can't be swayed by charm when it matters most. You can also enter a rage to suppress any fear or charm that is currently on you. An excellent feature especially at the level it comes online.

Intimidating Presence: Very flavorful, but it comes online a little late, and it scales off your Charisma, which is probably your fourth highest stat (Str>Con>Dex>Cha>Wis>Int).

Retaliation: A beautiful capstone that rounds out an all around not so beautiful path. This is the only class feature a Path of the Berserker will have that uses his reaction, so there is nothing other than feats that prevents you from doing this and nothing else every round.


Path of the Totem Warrior

Spirit Seeker: Who says a barbarian can't scout? The beast sense spell is amazing, and being able to cast it as a ritual without taking a feat is both flavorful and ridiculously useful. Speak with animals will more than likely also have its shining moments in any game. Honestly, the only problem I have with this feature and this path in general is that it feels so perfect for an outlander warrior that it invalidates the ranger more than the ranger does.

Totem Spirit (Colors based on choice)

Bear: You get resistance to all damage while you are raising (except psychic). Someone drops a fireball on you? Half damage. Get poisoned? Half damage. Dragon breathes lightning on you? Half damage. The single greatest tanking ability, not only in this entire book, but in any tabletop RPG period, and it comes online at 3rd level. Man up and be a bear.

Eagle: Don't get me wrong, mobility is nice. But again, you are a barbarian. 9 times out of 10, you're going to be getting hit anyway, and if you took Bear, you'd be taking half damage from those OAs even if they were magic or silver weapons, so it's just not that great an ability comparatively speaking.

Wolf: Reckless Attack for everybody! Seriously, advantage on all attack rolls (and more importantly negative disadvantage on all attack rolls) for your allies is beyond amazing. Of course, this is melee only, so if you're the only melee character in the party, this becomes red, but even just one rogue or paladin in the group brings it back up to black. (The skyblue rating is assuming you have 2 other melee characters in the party, which is the most common time you'd take it).


Aspect of the Beast

Bear: Your carrying capacity is doubled, when you already have 20 Strength. You gain advantage on some Strength checks, which rage already gives you. Admittedly, this lets you get that advantage without having to burn a daily use of rage, which is what keeps it from being red, but still. There are better options.

Eagle: You can see up to a mile away from you at all times, and dim light doesn't give you disadvantage on Perception checks. These are both hilariously good scouting abilities.

Wolf: Seriously, did someone at WotC just say "you know what, to hell with it, let's just make barbarians the new rangers"? I'm not entirely sure if you retain this ability while you are using your beast sense ritual (that's probably an ask your DM question) but if you do, then this becomes sky blue.



Spirit Walker: So flavorful. I personally love commune spells, as they give me insight into the DM's lore and mindset, and the idea of a talking bear showing up out of nowhere to tell me things that a ranger would have to roll skill checks for is great.


Totemic Attunement.

Bear: This has to compete with Retaliation, and it does. If Path of the Berserker is the best damage dealer, Bear Totem Warrior is the best tank. This is similar a 3.5 crusader's ability, except it's disadvantage so it's way better.

Eagle: You can fly in short bursts while you rage. Essentially this equates to "I will jump into the air to hit that flying enemy, then land on the ground so if it wants me, it has to come get me!" Not as useful as a regular flight speed, but it fixes the problems melee has with flying enemies, which is good enough.

Wolf: You can use your bonus action to knock Large or smaller creatures prone when you hit them with a melee attack while you rage. There's no save, which is nice, but it's still nothing compared to the other two.